Case Number 14149

THE LOST BOYS (BLU-RAY)

The Charge

Opening Statement

Once upon a time, director Joel Schumacher made an awesome movie (I know,
right? Who'd've guessed?). Let's reminisce.

Facts of the Case

In the sleepy little town of Santa Carla, California (which looks
suspiciously like Santa Cruz), the nights belong to a gang of motorcycle riding
teen vampire toughs with spiky mullets, dangly earrings, and leather jackets
with so many zippers it sounds like they're wearing spurs when they walk. Into
this crucible of evil comes brothers Sam (Corey Haim, Lucas) and Michael
Emerson (Jason Patric, Rush), along with their recently divorced mother
Lucy (Dianne Wiest, Hannah and Her Sisters). Lucy is moving back in with
her eccentric father (Barnard Hughes, TRON) because she's having trouble
making ends meet.

During an open-air metal concert featuring a shirtless, oily,
saxophone-playing Jon Mikl Thor lookalike, Michael spies a brunette hottie named
Star (Jami Gertz, Twister) and is smitten. Unfortunately, she leads him
to the gang of teen bloodsuckers. David (Kiefer Sutherland, 24), the
gang's leader, promptly turns Michael into a half-vampire (he won't become the
real thing until he makes his first kill). When Sam learns of his brother's
scary fate, he turns to the only people he can: Edgar (Corey Feldman, The
Goonies) and Alan (Jamison Newlander, The Blob [1988]) Frog, brothers
who work in their parents' comic book shop and fancy themselves mini-Van
Helsings. What follows is an '80s-style showdown between the living and the
undead.

The Evidence

The Lost Boys is an adolescent phantasmagoria of every excess of '80s
Hollywood horror-comedy moviemaking (except for profanity and nudity). There's
blood and guts by the gallon, grue galore, cheap scares, bad haircuts, video
arcades, headbands, shoulder pads on pastel dusters, power ballads, Rob Lowe
poster art, enough Aqua Net to destroy the entire ozone layer, and, of course,
the Coreys. Throw in a Rubik's Cube, Pac-Man, and some references to Iran-Contra
and it'd be like an episode of VH1's I Love the '80s.

Before you dismiss the flick as a hopelessly dated relic, consider that
The Lost Boys is part of that slim subgenre of true horror-comedies. By
"true," I mean movies that are fully functioning comedies but also
entirely committed to their horror elements. Schumacher's teen vampire flick
isn't an unabashed classic of the subgenre like, say, An American Werewolf in
London or Evil Dead II, but it's an awfully fun ride. There's a
steady stream of well-executed laughs (Corey Haim's gratuitous bathtub scene
notwithstanding) and nearly every actor in the flick (except Jason Patric) is up
to his or her eyeballs in quirk. On the flip side, the vampire violence is just
damned cool. Corey Feldman may look like a dork in Army fatigues and a red
headband, but it's pretty awesome when the innards of a staked bloodsucker are
dumped all over his head -- and who doesn't like to see a nosferatu sizzled in a
bath of holy water and garlic or gallons upon gallons of blood spraying from
every plumbing fixture in a house? I know I do.

One of the The Lost Boys's less renowned charms is the fine work by
cinematographer Michael Chapman. It should come as no surprise that Chapman
delivers a heap of beauty and visual style -- the man's résumé
includes The Last Detail, Taxi Driver, Personal Best, and
Raging Bull. The movie's opening title sequence, which consists of a
series of helicopter shots of Santa Cruz's boardwalk, is maybe the single most
artful thing created under the direction of Joel Schumacher. Moreover, Chapman
helped Schumacher stay within the bounds of his limited budget by executing
energetic vampire's-eye-view crane shots so that the director didn't have to
show his monstrous teens swooping down on their terrorized victims. This meant
Schumacher could spend his budget where it really counts: during the extended
mayhem that closes out the picture.

In the interest of not bagging on Joel Schumacher (who's certainly taken his
fair share of brickbats over the years) by giving credit for The Lost
Boys' success to everyone but him, let me say a few words about what he
brought to the table. The Lost Boys might currently reside with any
number of long forgotten low-budget horror movies from the '80s if not for
Schumacher's eye for casting. Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Patric were teens with
thin resumés when cast to face off against each other. The intensity that
each brought to his role in The Lost Boys is the driving force of the
movie's horror elements. For a flick that's pretty much built on well-worn
comedy and horror conventions, the battle between David and Michael over
Michael's soul is surprisingly palpable. Better still, it's hard to go wrong
with an adult cast that includes Dianne Wiest, Barnard Hughes, and Edward
Hermann (The Gilmore Girls).

Props must also be given to Schumacher for the film's breezy pace and the
natural ease with which it switches back and forth between light comedy and
bleak, bloody horror. Eighties anachronisms aside, The Lost Boys remains
a fun 97-minute ride.

The money and attention to detail that Warner Brothers invested in creating
fully restored high-definition video masters for their lush Two-Disc Special
Edition line of DVDs is paying off as Blu-ray becomes an increasingly viable
high-def format. This Blu-ray edition of The Lost Boys is basically a
straight port of the Special Edition DVD with a notable upgrade in image quality
and sound. The 1080p VC-1 transfer is colorful, detailed, and nearly pristine (a
surprise considering the low quality of film stocks in the 1980s). Colors are
always accurate -- vivid and bright during daytime exteriors and warm in the
vampires' lair. This is as good as I've ever seen the film look. The TrueHD 5.1
surround track is surprisingly rich and enveloping considering the age of the
movie. I have no complaints.

The disc is rich in featurettes. "The Lost Boys: A Retrospective"
is a solid look backwards at the making of the film that includes most of the
primary cast and crew. Four shorter featurettes under the heading, "The
Vampire's Cave," cover Schumacher's vision for the film, the movie's
balance of comedy and horror, the filmmakers' attempt to put a fresh spin on
vampirism, and the persistent rumors of a sequel over the years (since realized
as the direct-to-DVD dreck, Lost Boys: The Tribe). "Vamping
Out" examines the excellent creature effects created for the movie by Greg
Cannom (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl).

Finally, there's a collection of deleted scenes, an interactive map that
details vampire lore from around the world, a photo gallery, and a music video
for Lou Gramm's "Lost in the Shadows" (what '80s flick DVD would be
complete without a Lou Gramm video?).

The Rebuttal Witnesses

Extras are identical to those found on the two-disc DVD release. While Joel
Schumacher provides an audio commentary full of good will and anecdotal
information, a multi-angle video commentary with Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, and
Jamison Newlander examining scenes from the movie involving Sam and the Frog
brothers is less interesting. It's mildly interesting to see each of the men
twenty years down the line, but the fact that they were recorded separately
makes the tracks less interesting than they would've been if this had been a
reunion. Also, the actors spend much time describing what's happening on screen
and little adding observation, analysis, or recollection.

Closing Statement

The Lost Boys isn't a great movie. I'm not even sure that it's a good
movie. But it's definitely an awesome movie. If you dig it like I do, this
Blu-ray release is easily the best option available for home viewing.